Choices
by RaiderWolf
Summary: Set just after Season Five of Buffy and Season 2 of Angel, Faith sits in her cell contemplating the choices in her life. Then she gets to make one. An important one, after she gets the news. Rated T for language. Short Vignette of what I think would have actually happened after Buffy's death.


Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

Choices, Faith Lehane Vignette

Faith sat in her cell, the Slayer in her not letting her sleep. It was night out and she wanted to prowl. She resisted the urge. At least in her cell she was safe. Safe from the Watchers. Safe from the police. Safe from the vampires.

She sighed, the sound almost echoing in the stillness. Here, in the night, she found her peace. Within these gray walls, she found the solitude to face the choices in her life. True, she hadn't intended to kill the Mayor's aide. But she did try to cover it up. She should have accepted Buffy's help then, maybe she wouldn't be stuck in a cell.

From there it had escalated. Buffy had tried to get her help, but she chose not to. Not accepting the consequences. To be fair, it had been a rough time in her life. But it was still inexcusable. She eventually turned on Buffy, allying herself with the Mayor. He treated her like a daughter, and she wiped the tear away from her eye at the thought that he had passed. Buffy lured him into the high school where she had enough explosive to leave nothing but a crater.

Not that she'd been awake for that. Buffy had plunged a knife into her gut, trying to subdue her so she could be fed to Angel. Angel himself had been shot with a toxic arrow by her, and only a Slayer's blood would cure him. She'd been in a coma for months, finally waking up only to find the mayor dead and Buffy alive and well.

She was left with a mystical device that swapped their bodies for a time, and she'd had a chance to live Buffy's life. It was then she started to hate herself. She escaped Buffy, leaving Sunnydale for Los Angeles, and was hired by Wolfram and Hart to kill Angel, who'd left because he couldn't be with Buffy for fear of losing his soul again.

Well, she screwed that job up, intentionally, so Angel would kill her. Even that hadn't worked out like she wanted. Angel convinced her to give herself up, using his own similar past to bond with her. At first she hadn't wanted to, but she did. She turned herself in, and with one last look, let herself be taken off to confess her crimes.

She still had twenty four years to go before she was eligible for parole. Most slayers didn't even live half that, meaning if she wasn't killed in a prison riot, she was going to be the oldest slayer in hundreds of years.

'Who am I kidding?' she thought, rolling over in her bunk. 'B will still be alive and kicking vampire ass when we're in rocking chairs.'

She was just about to shut the world around her out when she heard a pair of boots walking the corridor. That drew her attention. The guards didn't wear boots, they wore shoes. Highly shined, mirror gloss. The steps came closer, and then she felt it.

A vampire was coming.

She came fully awake, glancing around her cell for anything to help her. Not a blasted thing. She was a trapped kitty, now she just hoped that whoever it was, was stupid enough to enter her cell to try and kill her. Maybe then she had a chance. The boots were almost at her cell when she stood in the center of the room and dropped into a fighting stance. She wasn't expecting the person who appeared though.

"Angel!" she whispered, glad that it was him that had come.

"Faith," he said, as he leaned against the bars. "I need to ask you a very serious question."

"If its wear I hid the cigarettes, not saying," she tried to joke. Unfortunately it fell flat, not earning even a smirk from the souled vampire.

"If you got out of here, what will you do?"

She shrugged, sitting on her bed. "Probably go back to slaying. It's what I am, you know?"

"I know how difficult it was to turn yourself in, to face your problems. But Faith, you need to believe you can still be a good person."

Faith didn't even look at Angel, just nodded. She knew she deserved every year of her sentence. She'd killed an innocent, a human she was supposed to protect. She should be locked away.

"Faith, I know it's not easy for you, but are you ready to get out?"

Faith lifted her head and looked up at Angel. "I don't know. I was just thinking I deserved my life here. Twenty four more years and I'll be eligible for parole. I was hoping to make it out then, get back to my slaying. B will probably be there, watching me, telling me how rusty I am." She chuckled at the thought of the petite blonde in her mid-forties, still wearing leather and slaying 'em dead.

"Buffy won't be waiting. That's why I came for you," Angel whispered, his face hanging. "She died, a few days ago. I don't know all the details yet, but Willow said she stopped a god."

Times like this, Faith was glad her jaw was permanently attached. She was sure it would have hit the floor and rolled away. "Dead? B is dead?" Faith couldn't imagine her sister slayer ever dying. She knew she had once, drowned in a pool of water after meeting the Master for the first time. That's how Kendra had been called, and how she replaced her after Kendra's death. But for Buffy to be really dead this time?

She knew it was their fate. The life of the Chosen One was to fight the forces of Darkness until the Darkness got lucky. Then a new one was called to replace her. So the fight goes, but for Buffy to be fully dead. One day, she knew she'd meet a vampire or demon who would win, then she would die. She just never imagined Buffy dying so soon.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you, Faith. But the Hellmouth needs a Slayer, and the gang is not going to be enough alone. They're trying to make some kind of robot so vampires think she's still alive, but they need a Slayer. Do you want to help or not?"

"Why don't you go?" Faith asked, still trying to wrap her mind around B's death.

"Sunnydale has too many memories. Plus, if I ever see that robot I'm liable to rip it apart myself."

Faith nodded, though she couldn't blame Angel for his views on seeing a robot masquerade around as his old friend. She sat on her bed, thinking it over. Finally, she nodded her head. "I'll do it."

"Great. I made a deal with Wolfram and Hart. I have to go find some tablet thingy for them, and when I do, they'll get you out."

"This isn't some kind of evil thing you're doing for them, is it?"

Angel scoffed. "Of course not. It's about the location of an ancient weapon of a legendary warrior. Apparently, someone contracted Wolfram and Hart to find it, but only a champion can get it. I'll get the tablet, and you get to go free. Legally. So you never have to worry about coming back here."

"Angel," Faith started to say, then she felt the tear run down her cheek.

"If it had anything evil about it, Wesley would have told me. Apparently it has some kind of enchantment that allows it to slay vampires, or something. So unless they are trying to kill all vampires, nothing bad can come of it. Right?"

"Watch your back, Angel. I don't want Wesley to come tell me you've died too."

"Thanks Faith," Angel said, laying a business card on the bars. "Write me when you get to Sunnydale. And if you need help..."

"I'll call," she said, smiling at him as he walked away. She watched him through the bars as he left, then took his card. Angel Investigative Services. She smiled at the thought. 'Maybe I need a business card. Faith Lehane, Slayer.'


End file.
